U.N. Appoints New Commissioner for Relief Work for Arab Refugees

Laurence V. Michelmore, deputy director of personnel for the United Nations since 1959, and a top fiscal and administrative aide here since 1946, will be appointed tomorrow as Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Secretary General U Thant will announce the appointment, it was learned here today.

The new UNRWA chief will succeed Dr. John H. Davis, who has resigned, after serving in the post five years, effective December 31. Like Dr. Davis and all the other preceding UNRWA heads, Mr. Michelmore is an American. The U. S. A. pays 70 per cent of UNRWA’s costs, having spent on that task about a half billion dollars since 1950. The UNRWA, with more than 1,200,000 persons on its official registration rolls, employs 11,789 persons, of whom all but about 150 are themselves Arab refugees.